Havel briefcases

The theme for the 2024/25 edition was a quote from the play Leaving:

“We want to build on everything that was good in the previous period in the future period, and at the same time get rid of everything that was bad in the previous period. Is that clear?”

1st place: Václav Kvapil (1st year student of Dramaturgy)

Text: Train will be delayed by (fill in) minutes

“This cleverly constructed play balances between an existential story and a grotesque about unfulfilled expectations. Clearly and matter-of-factly written, the plot-shifting dialogue also has a subtlety that plays with the metaphor of a train that, like time, is running late or has already passed, etc. The witty micro-play does not forget the minimalistic yet effective stage design.” – Hana Hložková, jury member

2nd place: Robin Mayer (2nd year RTDS student)

Text: The murderer belongs behind bars

“A cleverly constructed absurdist whodunit that masterfully plays with the characters and processes of the detective genre, which it takes “ad absurdum” with playfulness and craftsmanship. The six characters in this play (including the Dead Husband in the top hat) could promise a playful stage rendition. ” – Barbora Jandová, jury member

3rd place: Tereza Sobotková (2nd year student of Dramaturgy)

Text: And a man…?

“The text, which offers images with its poetic quality, stirs something hidden and urgent. A strange meditative emanation, directing the thoughts to reflections on human existence, on the times we live in.” – Dodo Gombár, jury member

The theme for the 2023/24 edition was a quote from the essay The Power of the Powerless:

“Technology – this child of modern science as the child of modern metaphysics – has got out of man’s hands, has ceased to serve him, has enslaved him and forced him to assist it in preparing his own destruction. And man knows no way out: he has no thought, no faith, and still less any political concept that would return the situation to his hands; he watches helplessly as the coldly functioning machine he has created inexorably absorbs him and rips him from all his natural bonds (for example, from his “home” in various senses of the word, including his home in the biosphere), as it distances him from the experience of being and throws him into the “world of being.”

1st place: Arnošt Hašek (2nd year Drama Directing student)

Text: Soil 2077

“”This year’s play is perhaps the most “Havel-like” not only because of the eponymous character Bedřich, who resembles Bedřich from Havel’s Vernissage in name and character, but also because of its distinctive verbal humour and model absurd situation. In this conspiratorial one-act play, the four main characters are preparing the liquidation of the headquarters of artificial intelligence on the ground (which gave the whole one-act play its title), during which they themselves have problems with commonly used technical conveniences (mobile phones, internet, etc.), and with each other…” – Barbora Jandová, jury member

2nd place: Jolana Sedlářová (1st year student of Theatre Dramaturgy)

Text: Improvement of the database of vocal expressions

“Through a fixed form, the text attempts a clash of opinions and to break the ice between two beings. Although it is not clear whether they are “waiting for Godot” or really trying to “improve their database of vocal expressions”, their conversation gradually leads them to total existential solitude.”

3rd place: Josef Nosál (student of the 1st year of the Master’s degree in Radio and Television Dramaturgy and Screenwriting)

Text: Vacuum cleaner

“The model game – a case study of being consumed by desire for a particular object. A young couple gradually sacrifices their life, relationship and purpose entirely to the destructive need to own a unique vacuum cleaner with extraordinary abilities. An absurd comedy with metaphorical ambition – our need to make sense of our own lives is delegated to an inanimate “being”, as if a vacuum cleaner could automatically make our existence happy and meaningful. The most “Havel-like” of the competition plays (in the sense of Havel’s critique of the “objectification” of our existence and the need to demand the meaning of our existence from something outside us)” – Jan Šotkovský, jury member

The theme for the 2022/23 edition was a quote from the play Audience:

“Everything now, Ferdinand, depends on you! If you inject us, all will be well! You’ll help me, I’ll help him, he’ll help me, and I’ll help you – so we won’t miss a thing! Let’s not make our lives a living hell!”

1st place: Helena Gricová (student of the 2nd year of the Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Dramaturgy)

Text: We don’t have tanks

“This cleverly thought-out and witty text about the cooperation of two soldiers from opposing armies is exceptional not only for its excellent knowledge of the principles of absurdist drama and its very contemporary socio-political theme, but also for how precisely it is prepared for the stage.”- jury

2nd place: Natálie Bočková (2nd year student of Theatre Dramaturgy)

Text: About the supporting characters

“The situation of two characters, different in generation and socially, is a functional drama that captivates not only because their “story” is revealed to us in small doses, but especially thanks to the excellent dialogue.”

3rd place: Kateřina Humhalová (2nd year Drama acting student)

Text: What the eyes cannot see

“The theme of indifference in practice is interesting because of the thoughtful layering of platitudes and language puns in the replicas of characters who do “nothing” while the small human tragedies unfold in front of them that these very characters could have prevented.”- jury

The theme for the 2021/22 edition was a quote from the play Leaving:

“I wanted wise, decent and well-rounded people to leave our schools. That was the main idea behind my planned school reform. If it was slow in coming to fruition, it was mainly the fault of some teachers who were not wise, decent and well-rounded enough.”

1st place: Josef Nosál (2nd year RTDS student)

Text: It must be

“A punchy and precisely pointed monodrama about a school principal who is unable to accept changes in the running of his institution. The author has created a psychologically believable character with tragicomic traits and a subtle ironic humour that has great potential for theatrical realisation. The visually suggestive text is juxtaposed with the imagined stage action, which already on paper invites staging. The briefcase from the principal’s office rolls forward at a dynamic pace, offering a thoughtful portrayal of the meeting of the old and new worlds that ultimately, almost always, must break down the door. A skillfully written, ironic and well-graded to the point four-page briefcase.”-Jury

2nd place: Vojtěch Balcar (3rd year student of Theatre Dramaturgy)

Text: Bublifuk

“The play thoroughly elaborates a single situation that is told from different perspectives and therefore has conflicting endings. The author has created a refined structure in which elements of the detective, the absurd and the psychological-realistic are present. An artfully, even subtly, constructed text, reminding us of the theme of the impossibility of communication, the different understanding of one thing and the inability to agree. In this case, the jury agreed that they saw significant theatrical (staging) potential in this play. The text stands out for its consistency and its attempt to touch on deep themes in a small space.”

3rd place: Daniela Vošáhlíková

Text: Change is needed!

“The author clearly demonstrates the absurd decomposition of language, reminding the reader not only of Havel, but also of Ionesco, Pinter and Beckett. A brisk, playful and minimalist text. The basic idea of this nude from the background of the teaching staff, is the inability to proceed to systemic changes that are necessary, and everyone wants them, but no one can make them happen. A brilliantly constructed absurdity (truly “Havel-esque”) that is one of the briefcases that most accurately understands and describes this year’s theme and assignment. It is refined in its minimalism and economy of language and situation. When reading this text, one can feel a pervasive rhythm in the air, which ends with an expressive percussion break.” – jury

The theme for 2020/21 was a quote from the play The Garden Party:

“We’re all just sort of finding our footing in these turbulent times.”

1st place: Daniela Samsonová (2nd year Drama Directing student)

Text: Shelves

“This play is, I would say, instructed by Havel’s world, but at the same time it is a completely unique author’s view of our immediate reality, or rather, the reality of our near future. It is both a cruel and amusing reflection of the months of which we have so unexpectedly become a part. I had a compulsive need to imagine the text on stage while reading it several times.An engaged dystopia that also playfully challenges the clichés of engaged dystopia. Above all, it is suggestive in how characteristically Czech is the covid nightmare that the author depicts – the apocalypse seems to have already taken place, the Czechs have apathetically accepted it, somehow settled down in the post-apocalyptic world and are quite used to it.”

2nd place: Jan Rec

Text: In the Hall

“The author of the one-act drama V síňce (In the Hall) skillfully continues the legacy of Havel’s absurdist drama, which he combines with very entertainingly with Ruthless jokes and criticism of today’s isolated society. The author of the one-act drama V síňce (In the Hall) artfully builds on the legacy of Havel’s absurdist drama, which he combines very entertainingly with Ruthless quirks and criticism of today’s isolated society.”

3rd place: Vojtěch Balcar

Text: Canaries

“The main theme of the one-act play The Canaries was freedom. The metaphor of a safe life in a cage, confronted with one’s own choices and opinions, became the main motif. What I appreciate about this one-act play is its clear idea, which the author gradually “models” (since it is indeed a “model play” – perhaps one can appreciate a kind of “purity of genre” in its clear and legible structure), structures it into individual situations (in which the main characters are led to further information and knowledge), up to the final punchline. In this model play, the author manages to capture the ever-present themes (more like theses/maybe even clichés?) of personal responsibility, personal opinion, freedom (and democracy) in confrontation with the dictated “imposed” opinion and the safety of “life in a cage”.”